DESIGN projects @katiecox-projects-blog - Tumblr Blog

STUDIO PROJECT 8

For this studio project, we were challenged to create our own personal logo for our brand. I really enjoyed this project because this is something I had wanted to do for myself in the future and it was a good opportunity to explore what I could potentially do in future. I wanted a simple, signature, handwritten like logo that reflected my style and was visually appealing. This logo needed to work in both black and white and colour so I worked in black and white for the most part of the process and then introduced colour later. I’m really happy with the end result and look forward to in future refining my design and improving to one day maybe use it in my own personal branding.

STUDIO PROJECT 7

The brief for this studio project was to create an A4 magazine cover that was limited to just typography. This was challenging...especially in the early stages because I’m so used to pairing imagery with text. I was pushed to not only rethink typography and how it could be illustrative enough to carry an idea but I also had to completely make all typography from scratch. I decided to make my magazine a simple and focused on marine and taking a “save the whales” point of view (hence the name for the articles). The typography is very hand drawn and irregular as is the illustration of a whale tail which I made up of the word ‘whale’ hand drawn. “Reckoner” is written in bright white to contrast from everything else on the page and make it clear that this is the title whilst not being so separate from everything else on the page. I limited my colour palette to a bluey-green, greys and whites to give it a calm and simple feel whilst also linking back to colours associated with the ocean. Although I’m happy with how this turned out if I were to approach this task again with more time I’d have liked to add more movement to my page as it feels very static and perhaps too simple.

STUDIO PROJECT 6

Inspired by the Alfred Hitchcock horror film, The Birds (1963) this is a depiction of every Australian's nightmares, being swooped by a magpie.

I found this project to be really challenging because I am not one to enjoy watching horror movies or anything of the kind. This task pushed me out of my comfort zone where I was made to design from a subject that I am not familiar with. I wanted to still try and enforce my own style I have been developing into this design as well so I looked to try and take a horror movie concept and put it in a new light. I decided to stick with the theme of birds from the movie but put a classic Aussie spin on it and use a magpie in the swooping position zooming towards to audience. The bird by itself looked a little plain so I decided to play around with shapes in the background and settled on a handwritten, bold and irregular style type saying “BIRDS” linking back to the movie title, The Birds.

STUDIO PROJECT 5- revisited

When re-reading the studio project brief I realised that maybe I had approached this project right in that I hadn’t used a band as my inspiration so I decided to start from scratch again and use this as an opportunity to revisit designing a book cover. I chose the Jackson 5 because they are an iconic band and popular to this day. I decided to focus on their most iconic feature, the afro and try to use as little as possible to illustrate the group so that they would still be recognisable. I’m happy with how this project worked out and enjoyed the challenge of turning a band, unrelated to books, into a book cover.

STUDIO PROJECT 5

Recreation of Roald Dahl’s famous “James and the Giant Peach” book. It’s a challenge to try and recreate a cover of an iconic book. You have to think about what the most necessary components of the book. What imagery sums up the story in its entirety. Whilst still be recognisable as the book it needs to also interest the audience and draw them in so they want to see what the book is about. The most fundamental feature of this story is the peach. I utilised the composition and the much smaller hand to give the illusion that this is a huge peach. With the text in the bottom left corner, it looks as though it’s been pushed into the corner because the peach is so huge.

STUDIO PROJECT 4

A4 poster for a not-yet-published magazine called the “Wandering Eye”. I have chosen to use a really simple, clean design. I wanted to step away from the suspected imagery for this title of eyes, wandering, lost etc. and decided to instead look at different characters that wander. I chose a sailor! This has been represented by just a simple sailors hat. The vast warm blue background is like a vast ocean and I’ve kept the necessary information for a magazine in the top right corner in a grid.

Using the theme “time”, I have centered my calendar design around when the best time is to grow different fruits. The calendar is designed for hobby, home gardeners including information on how the fruit grows. I have used a bright, happy colour palette to reflect the fruit’s natural pigment and create a cheery aesthetic.

STUDIO PROJECT 1 // process

STUDIO PROJECT 3

This week’s studio project was to design 2 custom number plates and design our own typeface for them. Before beginning, I researched rules and regulations around number plates in NSW. I also looked at other number plate designs and the typefaces they used. Designing the letters proved to be a very difficult process and looking back now there is a lot I would change. The widths in the letters are inconsistent, The ‘D’, in particular, doesn’t match the rest of the letters in that it has some very thin strokes and has very sharp edges. The ‘E’ is also too thick on some of the horizontal strokes. The number 8 was also very difficult to be balanced and look like it was standing upright. Although I am not completely happy with the end result it was a great learning experience and if I had more time I know now what I would change.

STUDIO PROJECT 2

Layout grids in InDesign. Until this studio project, I had never really put much thought into my layout of anything I did. It’s been a real eye-opener to how powerful layout can be. Layout directs the user's eyes to where you want them to look and the order you want them to look at something. It also unites image with text. For this studio project, I researched different examples of layout used in various contexts, magazines, posters, menus, books etc. I then used this to inform my layout grids I created in InDesign.

Once completed I picked one layout grid I had created and put it into practice. I loved seeing it come to life and how versatile a layout grid can be. There is a world of possibilities for documents. It’s opened my eyes to the world of layout design outside of the full page, one column, left aligned pages with a few images tossed in. Putting my grid into action was also a great experience seeing how much text can actually fit in my boxes. Seeing if the page is too cluttered and how the images work alongside the text. I’m really happy with how bold, clean and bright this simple layout is. I definitely will be rethinking how I layout text and imagery in my work from now on.

STUDIO PROJECT 1.2

A geometric portrait of a baby I had photographed. For this portrait, I decided to try and create detail and shadowing effects using more shapes and larger palette. This project proved to be challenging and took way more time than I had envisioned. I really enjoyed this project because it pushed me to try and create detail and highlights and shadows, thus creating a three-dimensional illusion.

#geometric #geometricportrait #baby #studio project

STUDIO PROJECT 1.1

This is a portrait of Ice Cube (aka O'Shea Jackson Sr) created just from abstract, geometric shapes. I used a photo as reference and tried to simplify my portrait by creating more distinct differences between shadows and highlights. Shapes are sharp and rough. I exaggerated the key features of his face as seen in the box-shaped hairline, beard, and broad nose, iconic features that make up Ice Cube. This project really challenged me to simplify what I saw. To break down soft highlights to deep shadows into only a few shades.

#geometric #geometricportrait #icecube #studio project

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